Last Day Of A School

Yesterday was the end of the 2010-11 school year in HISD, and it affected me moreso than it has in previous years besides having to worry about the younglings running around when I drive through neighborhood streets for the next two months..

As part of the budget cutting affecting school districts in Texas due to our Republifool controlled state legislature working on trimming $4 billion out of public education over the next two years, the local school districts are responding by making painful cuts on the local level

To save $1.6 million, HISD is closing four low enrollment elementary schools.  One of the four schools that closed its doors permanently was Joseph J. Rhoads Elementary, one of the elementary schools I matriculated at for my kindergarten and several years later third grade when the HISD school pairing desegregation plan kicked in.   


The school was named for African American educator Joseph J. Rhoads, a Marshall, TX born educator who was an honors graduate of Bishop College, attended Yale for a year, was principal of Booker T. Washington HS in Dallas from 1923-1929, obtained a M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1935, taught at Tuskegee Institute, and in 1929 became the sixth president of Bishop College. (which unfortunately shut its doors in 1988).  He was also the first African American alumnus of the then Marshall, TX based school to head it.  

During his tenure as its president which lasted until 1951 he established the Dallas branch of the school in 1947 to which Bishop College later moved from Marshall in 1961.  The J. J. Rhoads Education Building onthe Dallas campus was named for him along with elementary schools in Houston and Dallas.  He distinguished himself as an educator, administrator, and a civil rights warrior in the Lone Star State.

Mr. Rhoads was president of the Texas Council of Negro Organizations andchairman of the Texas Commission on Democracy in Education, and fought forequality of opportunity for all citizens and equal salaries for Black teachersin Texas.   He passed away on October 9, 1951 and is buried in Marshall

J.J. Rhoads opened its doors to serve the Cloverland neighborhood in 1957.  When I was attending the school in the late 60's the school needed temporary buildings to house all us baby boomers that were coming through the campus.   There was a Black population shift occurring out of the Fourth and Fifth Wards on the northeast side of town to South Park, Sunnyside, Cloverland and southwest Houston.

There was also new Black segregated suburban housing being built in that general area the school serves in King Estates, Kennedy Heights and my Crestmont Plaza neighborhood that was swelling enrollment as well. It was down to approximately 350 students when the doors closed yesterday under the leadership of its last principal Dr. Debera Balthazar.

Back during that time, J.J. Rhoads, true to its namesake, was a leading all Black grade school so renowned for academics there was a waiting list to get in.   That reputation as a academic powerhouse started breaking down after the Singleton Ratio to desegregate schools in Texas began to be implemented and the experienced Black teachers started getting sent to predominately white schools and the Black schools got inexperienced white teachers in return. 


I had mixed emotions about J.J. Rhoads since I barely remember my kindergarten year with Ms Williams (who was also my 1st grade teacher at Law) and my third grade year was a less than pleasant experience for the first three months I was there.  I liked Law since it was a brand new building and hated being rezoned back to Rhoads.  Also being messed with and averaging a fight a week until I sent an unmistakable 'don't jack with me ' message by painfully (for them) beating down three boys during a three on one recess fight didn't endear me to the school either.

But walking its halls is always going to be part of my childhood, and it was a surprisingly sad day when they permanently closed the doors to J. J. Rhoads Elementary school. 

In Defense Of Teachers

Another one of the reasons I despise conservafools and the GOP is because as a proud card carrying TK (teacher's kid) I despise the decades long attacks on the teaching profession and teacher's unions by the conservafool movement.

Had to post this video which is probably the most vigorous defense of teachers you'll hear this year.

DISD Discussing Anti-Bullying Policy

Seeing how well the Dallas Independent School District's early 90's era sexual orientation only non-discrimination policy worked to keep Andy Moreno from being discriminated against last week when she ran for North Dallas High's homecoming queen,  methinks the Dallas area trans community probably needs to be making it voice heard at DISD headquarters not only about that issue, but the Board of Trustee discussions on revising the anti-bullying policy. .

The DISD board according to the Dallas Voice Instant Tea blog met October 14 to discuss the anti-bullying policy, and the Dallas trans community probably needs to be speaking loudly to ensure that gender identity or expression is included in it before a final vote is taken on it at the end of the month.

Resource Center Dallas Strategic Communications and Programs director Rafael McDonald stated in a press release:

“We are pleased that DISD is revisiting its approach to bullying. Unfortunately, the proposed policy does not define which students are to be protected by it. As a result, it does not provide specific protections for LGBT students. It is vital for this board to specifically articulate who this policy is designed to protect, rather than simply stating a broad definition of bullying. Absent any specific protections, it could be inferred that it would be okay to bully students based on their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Given the rash of LGBT bullying-related suicides in recent weeks—including one in the greater Houston area—specifically articulated protections are not formalities; they are essential.

“Resource Center Dallas encourages the North Texas LGBT community to contact the nine members of the DISD board. Encourage them to modify the proposed anti-bullying policy to specifically include LGBT students. Board members still have time to improve the protections for the youngest members of our community. Contact information, including phone numbers and e-mail, can be found at http://www.dallasisd.org/about/boardcontact.htm.

Okay Dallas area TBLG people, time to get busy being agents of your own, and our kids matriculating in DISD schools.

Just Because A Campus Claims It's GLBT Friendly Doesn't Mean It Is

As transpeople continue to transition as early as age six, it means that some access issues and battles are now being fought out at the middle school, high school and college level.

A comprehensive survey of  LGBT students, faculty and staff at America’s colleges campuses was recently done and unveiled at at September 23 briefing hosted by the openly gay members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

What the survey does is blow up some myths about 'GLBT friendly' campuses.

The 2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People reports on the experiences of nearly 6,000 students, faculty, staff and administrators in all 50 states. It shows significant harassment of students and a lack of safety and inclusiveness, even among those supposedly "welcoming" institutions.

And on the very day this survey was being unveiled, after a series of anti-gay incidents, students belonging to the University of Rhode Island's Gay Straight Alliance and GLBT Center staged a sit in to demand that the URI administration take immediate steps to protect LGBT students, employees and faculty on campus.

Here were the survey’s key findings:
• A quarter of respondents reported experiencing harassment. More than 80 percent of those said sexual orientation was the reason.
• Just under 40 percent of transgender respondents reported harassment and 87 percent of them blamed their gender identity or expression.
• A third of those surveyed have seriously considered leaving their institution because of the challenging climate.
• More than half said they hide their sexual or gender identity to avoid intimidation.
• More than a third reported they fear for their physical safety.

Not surprisingly, TBLG/SGL students and LBGT student of color felt even less safe because of the double whammy of racism and homophobia/transphobia.

Campus Pride's executive directer Shane Windemeyer noted in an interview with edge Boston that less than 600 colleges and universities have non discrimination policies hat include sexual orientation, and that number dwindles to less than 200 that have non discrimination policies that include gender identity and expression.

So this survey tells us that we have much work to do in order to make our college campuses safe and comfortable learning environments for GLBT students.

That needed to happen on HBCU campuses for LGBT/SGL students yesterday, but that's another post..

The reality is haters, TBLG people aren't going away or back into the closet.   Deal with the reality that we exist and the fact that TBLG students want the same things out of our college experience that you do. 

All we want is the ability to enjoy our college experience in as stress free a manner as possible, live our on campus lives without being harassed or assaulted and walk off the campus with our heads held high and a degree in hand.
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